Infernal Affairs II (2003) Reviews

Like most sequels, this one can't compare to the first one. In truth, this is a prequel to the first one. The first 30 minutes was slow and a bit confusing as to who was the good mole or the bad mole. This movie did show the years leading up to Infernal Affairs 1.
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This is a prequel to the classic that provides additional character maturity and very interesting relationship dynamics that supply a backdrop to the events that occur in the original. The subtlety and intelligence of the original is preserved and applied to individuals in clever ways, especially the fascinating importance of women on the characters' morality. Francis Ng is especially excellent here. Added to the first, these two films represent perhaps the greatest crime drama ever made.
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The original Infernal Affairs was definitely better. But this one was still pretty good. I think it answered most of the questions that the audience might've asked after watching the first movie. And even if you haven't seen the first one, you'll still understand it. I haven't seen the third one just yet......we'll see if it's any good.
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This story was much better than the first one and was probably one of the better crime dramas to come out of Hong Kong when it was released. Recommending this movie is based on the good writing rather than the seen it before acting. The acting, directing and writing were well done. The commentary extra isn't worth listening to as cast and crew members chime in separately whenever their scene comes up in addition to espousing their acting wisdom and critiquing everyone else. The Dolby 5.1 audio option made very good use of surround sound. As for extras, there's two trailers for the movie, a "Feature Commentary By The Filmmakers And Cast", a "Deleted Scenes" featurette (11:43 min) containing seven scenes, a "The Making Of Infernal Affairs 2" featurette (21:56 min), a "Confidential File" featurette (5:43 min) with behind-the-scenes footage and trailers for three other movies. Recommended.
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